CPAs Realize Move to IFRS Is Inevitable

Even in the midst of trying to figure out what accounting standards and economic regulations are going to look like in a new administration and in response to the current crisis, accountants are thinking about the transition from U.S. Generally Acceptable Accounting Principles (GAAP) to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

CFO.com reported last week that CPAs are getting serious about the shift:

More than half of U.S. accountants are preparing for widespread adoption of international financial reporting standards in this country, according to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants... [A] survey of 1,495 members - nearly 20 percent of whom are CFOs - shows an increase in preparedness for an IFRS switch compared to when the trade group posed the same questions of its membership in April. Then, only 41 percent had said they were getting ready for IFRS.

More than 100 countries have already adopted IFRS, the story says, and as a result, CPAs in the U.S. are realizing that the move is inevitable. That's what's driving the increase in preparedness. If the Securities and Exchange Commission votes to adopt IFRS in 2011, publicly traded companies will have six years to make the switch.